Job summary
- Main area
- Older Adults and Dementia
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8a
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (maternity cover)
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week (3 days per week)
- Job ref
- 363-CH7500929
- Employer
- East London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- City and Hackney Mental Health Care of Older People
- Town
- Hackney Wick
- Salary
- £64,156 - £71,148 Per annum pro rata inc HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 17/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Highly Specialist Clinical Psychologist
NHS AfC: Band 8a
ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Job overview
Psychologists are integral and valued key members of the Mental Health Care of Older People’s multidisciplinary teams (MHCOP) in each borough across East London. Within and across the service, in line with National Guidance, the post holder will be responsible and accountable for the provision of high quality, person-centred and culturally sensitive psychological services to older adults presenting to the service, their families and carers. Our goal is to alleviate psychological distress and promote psychological well-being, working alongside our multi-disciplinary team colleagues in the community and liaison into the centralised wards, where required through consultation, teaching and training.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be an active member of City and Hackney’s Mental Health Care of Older Adult’s service including the centralised MHCOP inpatient wards and wider East London MHCOP Psychology and Arts therapies professional group.
They will work closely with psychologists and other professionals in the team maintaining a standardised approach to the assessment and care of Service Users with complex needs across community and inpatient settings. As part of this, they will contribute to the provision of a specialist psychological perspective for the work of the team, providing highly specialist psychological advice and consultation to other members of the team as well as consultation into the borough’s residential and nursing homes.
They will be responsible and accountable for the systematic provision of a highly specialist psychology service for people with severe, complex and enduring mental health and dementia related difficulties and their families, presenting to the service and across community and, where appropriate, acute physical health and psychiatric settings.
They will develop working partnerships with other members of psychology services locally and across East London boroughs, relevant statutory and voluntary agencies, locality services and providers/commissioners as appropriate
Working for our organisation
Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Kindly refer to the job description and person specification that is attached to the vacancy profile.
Person specification
Education/ Qualification/ Training
Essential criteria
- Postgraduate Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (or its equivalent for those trained prior to 1996) as accredited by the BPS (2)
- Registration with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC)
- Clinical supervision training for doctoral trainees
- Relevant specialist older adult training or qualifications, which should include include neuropsychological assessment skills
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant experience of work as a qualified Clinical Psychologist in NHS setting, including experience in neuropsychology assessment, formulation, and/or neuro-rehabilitation
- Use of psychological models for consultation with staff teams, notably relating to behaviours that challenge
- Experience of providing a clinical service to multicultural populations and use of interpreters
- Substantial experience of risk assessment and risk management
- Experience of supervising others’ clinical work
- Substantial experience of delivering teaching and training events
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Evidence of highly specialist clinical skills and knowledge in older adult mental health/ neuropsychology/ dementia
- High level ability to plan and conduct assessment and psychological interventions for individual clients and groups and carers, relevant for specialist MHCOP presentations
- Highly specialist skills in applying theory to work with individuals, couples, families, groups and organisations
- Skilled in dementia assessments and competence and confidence in selection and administration of cognitive assessment and neuropsychological test equipment
- Awareness of national policy and guidelines as related to dementia and older adult mental health
- Able to manage own time and caseload
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Dr Kitty Clark-McGhee
- Job title
- Consultant Clinical Psychologist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 0203 222 8500
- Additional information
Interested candidates should email [email protected] (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) or [email protected] (Principal Clinical Psychologist) to arrange a telephone or Teams call, to discuss the post further.
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